A Street Warrior Awakens...
Sometime in December 1987, the original fuel pump died a horrible death, spewing fuel all over the place. It was promptly replaced with a new one.
All of a sudden, the once docile 305 began to act like it had just reached puberty and started to grow hair. Any application over halfway of the throttle pedal would induce a nice thrust backward into the seat back, accompanied by the nicest sound of tortured rubber from the 225/70-15 Goodyears. 1-2 shifts would chirp the tire(s), and flooring the gas pedal at 20 kph would result in a loud albeit brief shriek from the Goodyears.
Before long, the cruise missile was making life difficult for the myriad of sporty coupes that roamed the streets in the late 80's, the predecessors to today's Riceboy cars (Celicas, 200SX Nissans, 4 cyl Mustang coupes, etc...). With 0-60 times hovering around the 9.5 second mark, it even took out the occasional 305 Firebird or Camaro. In fact, the greatest achievement was beating a late 70's 350-equipped Camaro (don't know if it was a 4Bbl or a 2Bbl 350, though).
It was fun while it lasted, but sooner or later something's bound to break, so before some major damage could occur the Parisienne's street racing days were over. Besides, horsepower was coming back into style, and the newer sports coupes were just too much to handle without tearing into the engine. At this point my GTA made its grand entrance into my life, and the Parisienne was once again relegated to grocery getter duty.
As powerful as the GTA is, however, it just couldn't compare to the feeling of 4000+ pounds of GM steel being launched to the sound of squealing rubber. It is a feeling that is sorely missed.
